You+CHA. Our Case for Support.

OUR MISSION: To Improve the Health of our Patients and Communities

OUR VISION: Equity and Excellence for Everyone, Every Time

Transforming lives, locally and nationally.

Amazing moments happen every day at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) as we stretch to meet the growing and changing needs of patients.

Tens of thousands of CHA patients come from historically marginalized populations and carry an exponential burden of health disparities. With an equity lens, our nationally recognized providers, services and programs are improving the health of individuals, families and communities.

While our work is hyper-local, we’re building models that have national impact. CHA is a catalyst for new ideas, a laboratory for creative solutions and a leader in Health Equity.

The following pages show glimpses of who we are and the beginning of a movement toward health for everyone. Become a part of our community. Join us as we transform lives.

A Newsweek TOP 1OO

maternity hospital

A leader in LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Human Rights Campaign Foundation

The number one hospital in Massachusetts for Health Equity Lown Institute

A grades for “Inclusivity,” “Social Responsibility,” “Community Benefit,” “Value of Care,” and “Avoiding Overuse” – Lown Institute

As an academic affiliate of Harvard Medical School and Tufts University School of Medicine, we train future medical leaders to care for patients and make a positive difference in our society.

> First in the nation to establish a community COVID respiratory clinic during the early days of the pandemic.

> One of the first in the nation to implement the medical home model.

> Creators of the Integrated Clerkship, a new model for teaching third year medical students.

> Leading the industry in integrating behavioral health and pharmacy services into primary care.

> Leading policy and academic initiatives that focus on climate health, LGBTQ+ health and equity.

The importance of caring for the underserved moved community advocates 100 years ago to create Cambridge Hospital and later Everett Hospital with Georgia Whidden’s generous donation of her family estate. Our history of foundational giving provides a roadmap for supporting CHA today as we expand to new locations and build new facilities within our community to care for those most in need.

CHA Patient Reach:

Ambulatory Visits: 889,218

Patient Days: 57,443

The pandemic uncovered an abyss of mental health needs, disproportionately impacting Black people, Native people and People of Color. Demand across the nation for behavioral health services is higher than ever before with people waiting days, sometimes weeks, for a psychiatric bed in Massachusetts. CHA’s innovative, community response of expanding beds for youth and becoming a Community Behavioral Health Center (CBHC) mirrors our long history of stepping in when there’s a need. We connect with purpose and with a lens of equity.

Inpatient Expansion

Alberto, one of the thousands of underserved patients seen at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) this past year, was admitted to our new Center for Inpatient Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Somerville shortly after it opened in June 2022. In collaboration with the state, CHA added 64 psychiatric beds for the most severely impacted populations – people with MassHealth coverage, neurodevelopmental issues and/or high acuity diagnoses.

Feeling hopeless and depressed, Alberto attempted suicide three years after his harrowing international trek from Brazil. “I didn’t want to be a burden to my family anymore,” Alberto confessed. After several weeks of inpatient therapy helping Alberto tell his story, he returned to his family. Before he left, Alberto gave his therapist a book filled with words of encouragement. “It is the most significant gift I’ve ever received from a patient,” said Chandni Shroff, his social worker.

These deep connections are unfolding every day on the units.

“It is the most significant gift I’ve ever received from a patient.”

– Chandni Shroff, LICSW Alberto’s social worker

Equity in Action:

28,243 psychiatric inpatient days

117,268 outpatient ambulatory visits

CHA supports over 15,000 psychiatric patients each year.

Improving Access to Behavioral Health Care

As one of 25 inaugural Community Behavioral Health Centers (CBHC) in Massachusetts, CHA is playing a key role in changing the model of behavioral health care statewide, increasing access for all ages, and supporting its communities in new ways. “This is a challenging, but exciting time for behavioral health care,” notes Carl Fulwiler, MD, PhD, Interim Chair and Chief of Psychiatry and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “With the new CBHC framework, we are working to increase access, reduce wait times and improve outcomes for everyone – including patients from oftenmarginalized communities. Ultimately, we hope this will become the new standard of care in Massachusetts, and create a framework to improve the way behavioral health care is provided across the nation.”

you can…

Expand our framework for integrating and coordinating services with:

An expanded inpatient service for Neurodevelopmental and Autism spectrum disorders.

Increased access to evidence-based early screening, intervention and treatment for high-risk youth.

Behavioral health navigators in primary care to improve health outcomes and reduce the need for office visits.

Greater access to peer support programs and substance use recovery coaches.

WORKFORCE

“CHA believed in me,” explained Maria Terra, APRN, a CHA nurse practitioner. “Being trilingual in Spanish, Portuguese and English, I began working at CHA as a medical interpreter. With CHA’s support, I went back to school to further my career. Being able to help improve the lives of my communities brought me back. I believe in CHA.”

“CHA believed in me and I believe in where I work.”

– Maria Terra, APRN

Maria’s journey highlights CHA’s commitment to develop a diverse workforce representative of our patients and the communities we serve. CHA, like many healthcare systems across the country, continues to face extraordinary, long lasting workforce challenges due to the pandemic.

Our innovative community approach requires added staffing in a highly competitive market. We stand with big players in the Boston healthcare arena, putting additional pressures on our small but mighty healthcare system.

you can…

Build a workforce pipeline for diverse candidates through paid internship and apprenticeship programs. These programs provide opportunities to talented and caring individuals who are passionate about healthcare and committed to serving marginalized communities.

Advance nursing careers and nurse leaders through a partnership with the Organization of Nurse Leaders (ONL). This partnership will build career paths, lower attrition, and create a pipeline of nurse leaders to effectively advance our patients’ experience

Train Community Health Workers (CHWs) and Volunteer Health Advisors (VHAs) who are instrumental in improving people’s health in the communities we serve. CHWs and VHAs act as a bridge between the community and the larger health system, improving health care access, education, and delivery.

Address the current shortage of medical interpreters by collaborating with minority-owned language service companies. This partnership will allow everyone to receive culturally competent healthcare and enhance CHA’s goal of promoting diversity while supporting grassroots and community workforce development.

Promote inclusion, equity and diversity across CHA leadership roles through a learning module. This training will assist CHA in improving representation in CHA leadership of the populations we serve while ensuring a culture of inclusivity and safety where all colleagues are respected, valued, and appreciated.

As most health plans do not cover dental care, underserved populations increasingly struggle to get the care they need. CHA connects oral health and wellness by offering dental care in our clinic and beyond the dental office.

Brian

Chief Emeritus, Department of Dental Medicine

School-Based Dental Care

“I moved here by myself,” said Somerville High School graduate Oumaima El-Baroudi. Starting in 2017, CHA identified a critical need to address urgent untreated oral health needs for newly arrived immigrant youth. Students like Oumaima were trying to learn and work while in severe pain; some had up to 15 cavities, others had even more severe dental needs. Again, CHA stepped in, partnering with ForsythKids and Somerville Public Schools to bring quality and accessible oral health care to Somerville High School students and families. Oumaima was evaluated at CHA’s Teen Connection (Teen Health Center) and connected to dental care at CHA and Harvard School of Dental Medicine. These services changed Oumaima’s life, allowing her to focus on learning and living.

“Taking care of your teeth is also caring for your overall health. Over 100 manifestations of disease can be detected in the oral cavity – making this a critical place to identify systemic illness.”

Swann, DDS, MPH

2022 Oral Health Assessment

“So much of oral health and dentistry grant funding leaves out the communities and individuals most affected,” said Alec S. Eidelman, DMD, MPH, CHA community dentist and lead researcher. CHA, in partnership with Health Resources in Action, developed a novel, stand-alone Community Oral Health Needs Assessment to learn about the needs of residents in Malden and Everett, Massachusetts. Interviews were conducted with key community members, focus groups were held with at-risk populations and online surveys were administered in the community in six languages.

Some key findings include:

• Oral health affects quality of life – the ability to function as well as physical, psychological and social wellbeing.

• Pervasive disparities exist in access to oral health services in the Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities of Malden and Everett.

• Out of pocket expenses at private dental practices are too high forcing people to choose between rent, groceries or oral health.

“This project provided a voice to people living in this region. Community partnerships were enhanced, and together, we began addressing oral health needs of individuals. The stories we heard and the lessons we learned are directly aiding in the development of accessible oral health education and prevention programs, such as school-based oral health programming, elder and group living care, as well as substance use,” explained Dr. Eidelman.

“This project provided a voice to people living in this region.”

– Alec S. Eidelman, DMD, MPH

you can…

Double our capacity to provide urgently needed dental services to underserved adults and children in our communities by:

Building A New Dental Clinic with state-of-the-art care, a training facility, and equipped to perform on-site dentures and implants.

Expanding Dental Treatment Centers in pediatric and family medicine clinic locations for high-priority patients.

RESEARCH RESEARCH

At CHA, being a teaching healthcare system goes beyond training future providers and doing research in a lab. Our clinics and every corner of our hospitals are teeming with research projects exploring the lives of the communities we serve and how we can improve them.

With over $7.5 million annual research expenditures and more than 60 active research grants, our clinician researchers address health disparities that directly impact the people we treat while having a regional and national impact on care, policy and advocacy.

Leading a national research center to increase early mental illness detection in schools and the community, prevent adverse outcomes, improve quality of care and foster equity in treatment for racial, ethnic and language (REL) –minority youth – and that’s just one of our grants.

How is climate change impacting the health equity of our patients, families and communities?

Gaurab Basu, MD, MPH

How are immigrants experiencing discrimination?

Lara Jirmanus, MD, MPH

How can early mental health screening impact at-risk youth?

Benjamin Cook, PhD, MPH

you can…

Support transformational research by:

Creating a digital platform for youth to get mental health support.

Identifying disparities in alcohol treatment and outcomes for Medicaid patients.

Improving limited English proficient patient safety through patient portal access.

Making a gift to CHA has a measurable impact in the lives of our patients and the health of our communities. Take a moment to watch the short videos about Alberto’s miraculous journey, Maria Terra’s growth at CHA, CHA’s high school dental program and the Health Equity Lab at challiance.org/donate.

Just as the community responded one hundred years ago, our future depends on actions taken today.  By helping us, you will support thousands of people who need our services, and millions who may benefit from the models of care we are creating.

“Partnering with an organization that mirrors our values means a lot. We know that through our contribution, we are helping to make a real difference in the lives of people in our community.”

– Claudia Davidoff & Joseph Kahan

Legacy giving can make a lasting investment and impact so CHA can continue to care for the most vulnerable and marginalized members of our community. Consider how YOU+CHA can create equity and excellence for everyone, every time, today and in the future through planned giving.

Susie Posner-Jones, MHA Chief Development Officer Cambridge Health Alliance Foundation

350 Main Street, Room 5114 Malden, MA 02148 sdickin@challiance.org

802.309.2174